In the postscript in this novel, Jean Echenoz states that he wants to destabilise the novel from within. He certainly has a talent for destabilising the reader. This novel is the story of two men who once loved the same women. However, they never realise this fact until the last. They have various adventures across the globe, one ending up in Malaysia and the other on the streets of Paris. Of the woman, Nicole, we now little and somehow towards the end of the novel, both this character and the reader all get dragged into a gangster film and action flick all in one. It certainly is very disconcerting, and not exactly enjoyable.
Yet this novel way of story telling owes more to the script writing of cinema. In fact Echenoz, when commenting this book, was quoted as saying:
“De la même façon que sur le plan de la mise en scène des récits, je me sers de la rhétorique cinématographique. Je fais appel instinctivement à des repères de l’ordre des outils poétiques, de la césure, de la syncope. Je pars d’un manuel de rhétorique ou de métrique pour importer telle ou telle figure.”
As the reader slowly tackles this difficult novel, the pace quickens and the style changes. As if the book was alive and dragging us through two, and sometimes three different stories. Echenoz sees the novel as an engine to automatically generate stories. Sometimes these motors become infernal machines over which even the author has no-control.